Weinstein rolls with Fraggle Rock movie

Not to be mean, but here's pretty much the standard boy who cried wolf-take with an ocean of salt approach when it comes to(and always has come to) non Muppet JHC projects: Don't believe it til it's in the can.

Remember in 1998 on MC when Brian Henson announced the Dark Crystal prequel? While the Farscape miniseries did in fact happen after the show's cancellation thanks to fan support...and we have gotten a few clips/pilots of one off HA! shows online...most if not all of the reported JHC projects never happen.

I'm sure Drtooth has a better memory of the long litany of never-had-a-chance-of-happening projects announced, but the Fraggle Rock movie/DC2/Doozer cgi kids show is just the tip of the iceberg.

In fact, I'm wondering if there's a list of any exciting JHC announcements that have ever been seen to completion and released since the late 1990's? (not including PBS kids shows and that sort of thing)

As far as I'm concerned, the FR movie will never happen. It's closer to happening without Weinstine, but still a billion miles from ever happening. Even if they did manage to get the film into production with them, I'm sure they would have sicked script doctors to destroy the film so it plays to no one. You know, like everything else out there... you could get lucky and make a Chipmunks, but you'll more or less wind up with Marmaduke.

I wish they could at LEAST freaking focus on one smaller project at a time and not try to make another huge film that keeps getting stopped in production forever then starts over only to get stuck again. Happytime Murders would have given them a name in the college film going crowd at LEAST! But seriously, if they can get 2 CGI kid's shows off the ground, Doozers SHOULD have happened.

The Muppet web videos (Popcorn, Ode to Joy, and of course Bohemian Rhapsody) were really popular and played a part in getting the Muppets back into the public eye again. This, in turn, generated interest to do the movie which we will all see this Thanksgiving.

Of course, that all happened with the Mouse's Money.

The same route could be taken for Fraggle Rock to reintroduce the characters to the audience. I'm not talking about song parodies. If they had some kind of short Traveling Matt segments, that might work to advertise the Henson Company. Matt was known for bumbling around the world, not understanding anything. Since the film industry loves "fish out of water" stories, well, that's what Matt's all about. Only with Matt, those bits were well written and Dave Goelz did an excellent job with him.

The same route could be taken for Fraggle Rock to reintroduce the characters to the audience. I'm not talking about song parodies. If they had some kind of short Traveling Matt segments, that might work to advertise the Henson Company. Matt was known for bumbling around the world, not understanding anything. Since the film industry loves "fish out of water" stories, well, that's what Matt's all about. Only with Matt, those bits were well written and Dave Goelz did an excellent job with him.

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I've been saying that since Ode to Joy. Sesame Street FINALLY got the hint and came up with that Old Spice parody and Conversations with Bert. All I'm saying is rebuild Matt, get Dave and have him interact with various silly creatures LIVE. Who of us would not want to see that? Henson NEEDS to step up for the internet market. Jim would've ran with the opportunity. He loved new media, and if he were still around, you can bet there would be YT channel all his own devoted to playing with it, puppetry, animation, whatever. That's the kind of wizkid Jim was. The fact Disney beat them to the punch is either a testament to the fact they need stronger leadership at Henson or the fact that even Disney got it right on the first try.

Not even just Fraggles. Play around with the Puppet Up characters. Don't just use the channel as a graveyard for unsold pilots. I mean, we're thankful we can see them, but how about some new stuff as well?

Actually, many of us several YEARS ago were wondering why JHC isnt doing viral videos for youtube with the characters(especially Uncle Matt) out in the real world.
Muppets started doing this in 2008. Then Sesame came stepped up and have done a few viral videos(Cookie Monster's SNL spoof, Bert's old spice spoof, etc) last year.

JHC does upload videos all the time to their youtube account, though mostly archival stuff(a lot of good gems there!) Why they don't have their Henson Alt characters out mucking around in Southern California, no idea. Youd think they would have been on the ball with all that stuff.

But apparently, it's too much trouble to have Red, Matt, etc in youtube viral shorts. (really a no brainer to do so)

As I said, Jim would've had his own personal YT account and put anything and everything he could up on it. Animation, puppetry, experimental films... Jim embraced film and television that much that something like YT would have drove him nuts, just itching to take advantage of the new medium. Even at the age he would have been if he were still around.

For JHC to spend their account using archival stuff alone (which, we are VERY VERY thankful for) seems like wasting potential. I mean, they're having such a hard time getting FR back out into the public, why not make some Red Fraggle videos or something. The Puppet's built.

As I said, Jim would've had his own personal YT account and put anything and everything he could up on it. Animation, puppetry, experimental films... Jim embraced film and television that much that something like YT would have drove him nuts, just itching to take advantage of the new medium. Even at the age he would have been if he were still around.

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I agree, I can definitely see Jim embracing New Media projects. And doing documentaries about them, lol.

Actually, I think we maintain the right to be excited about a failed potential future project that we all hope and pray will one day rise like a Phoenix from the ashes or a toe-tickler from a cave as a beautiful butterfly.

Actually, I think we maintain the right to be excited about a failed potential future project that we all hope and pray will one day rise like a Phoenix from the ashes or a toe-tickler from a cave as a beautiful butterfly.

Frales Frever

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As you can plainly see, I have no faith in Henson getting a single project off the ground. I mean, this thread alone is 3 years old! Weinstine sat on this script for forever, so I can't even blame Henson completely... but they just haven't been able to do squat with DC2, HappyTime Murders... and when they get something off the ground, unless it's a CGI kid's show, it lasts a good 5 episodes at BEST! Whatever happened to Late Night Liars? It just disappeared.

Meanwhile, you look at all the progress Disney's had with Muppets. Sure, it was a rocky start with unfinished pilots and the basic ennui of the last head of the branch... but we have viral videos, a Christmas Special, and a MOVIE! Other than 2 TV specials that could never have happened anyway, they've been giving us stuff.

Henson? 2 flop TV shows, 2 Kid's CGI shows, a troupe of live puppet theater, and hundreds of unproduced scripts and movies. Happytime Murders SHOULD have gone forward. It would have been a nice small reminder they're still in the business, AND it had the potential to be a cult Midnight Movie following. I mean, how long has Dark Crystal 2 been in Preproduction? Almost 10 years. It's been one tiny step forward, 8 steps back, then they have to start over from the beginning for 10 whole years!

I WANT a Fraggle Movie! I want to see a reboot of an 80's franchise in film form that DOESN'T suck and reek of jaded poo jokes and various other grotesque things that idiot 50 year olds THINK kids like. But unless Henson finds a partner with vision that actually wants to take a risk on something, this isn't gonna happen.

It flopped, plain and simple. I follow GSN's ratings, and when LNL was on, it got very low numbers compared to shows that GSN normally aired in those timeslots, and even brought down the numbers of shows that came on after. And this was in spite of very heavy promotion.

Maybe the show would have worked better on a network like Comedy Central or TBS, as GSN's audience doesn't seem to respond well to "adult" comedy-based shows. It also might have helped if they didn't rerun the show to ridiculous extremes (for one, they aired a repeat of the first episode immediately after it premiered). I personally kinda liked the show, though it seemed a bit too scripted. They seemed to be going for the vibe of classic shows like Match Game and I've Got A Secret, but those shows thrived on off-the-cuff humor.

Any show that reruns any reruns before the first 5 episodes is just doomed to bad ratings outright.

Now, I can't say LNL was all that good from what I saw (tried too hard in many cases), but it gave Henson a foothold on it's adult project line. And if that proved to be successful, that could have lead to funding for other projects. It didn't. Tinseltown and Late Night were unfocused... they probably would have done better on the web... but then again, no one wanted Late Night Buffet, and we got screwed out of something that actually COULD have stood a chance. And I swear, they should have just dropped everything and focused on Happytime, which wouldn't have made a crap load of blockbuster summer movie money, sure... but it would have been a fun midnight movie that college kids would flock to for years. Scott Pilgrim's become a cult hit, and Universal pretty much pretended the movie didn't exist! You can never tell what will be cult.

Now, I can't blame Henson for Weinstine's incompetence and greedy, but they could have at LEAST got the Doozer show off the ground by themselves. I mean, it might be a hard sell, but I REALLY would rather PBS dump the lousy SuperWhy and give this show a go. They're doing quite well with DinoTrain.